This extremely rare and interesting item of Athletics Memorabilia is a fine multi-signed print commemorating a night of sporting history; Jim Hines became the first man in the world to break the 10 second barrier. This was 'The Night of Speed', 20th of June 1968 in Sacramento, California.

Olympic champion Jim Hines said, “There will never be another night like it,” when he ran history’s first legal 9.9 that night. “That was the greatest sprinting series in the history of track and field.”

In the span of two and a half hours, the world record of 10 seconds was broken by three men and tied by seven others.

Charlie Greene won the final and thus the national title in a wind-aided 10 seconds followed in order by Jim Hines, Lennox Miller (JAM), Roger Bambuck (FRA), Ronny Ray Smith, Mel Pender, Billy Gaines and Larry Questad.

That was their third race in 150 minutes and understandably they were tired. But what happened in the preliminary rounds was simply a historic feat.

In the first heat, Hines ran a 9.8 but the wind was measured at an illegal three meters per second. Greene and Bambuck tied the world record of 10 seconds in last heat.

Hines won the first semi-final in a tight finish with Smith. Their times were announced as 9.9. The wind was legal. Jim Hines had just become the first man in the world to break the 10 seconds barrier.

Greene won the second semi-final and then went on to tie Hines’s 9.9 record in the final.